Interactive networked headphones

• US 9,992,316 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2016
• Issued: 06/05/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Muzik Inc.
• Original Assignee: Muzik Inc.
• Inventors: Hardi, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Leggett, Andrea
• Application Number:
  US15/162,152
• Publication Number:
  US 20160269523A1
• Time in Patent Office: 743 Days
• Field of Search: 715728
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 1/04 Hand wheels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/033 Pointing devices displaced or positioned by the user , e.g. mice, trackballs, pens or joysticks; Accessories therefor digitisers characterised by the transducing means G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/385 Transceivers carried on the body, e.g. in helmets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/75 Media network packet handling
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6066 including a wireless connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1041 Mechanical or electronic switches, or control elements switches in general H01H
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for connecting an interactive wearable device with a network. In one aspect, a method includes loading content from a playlist; recognizing contextual information relating to the content; determining the location of the user; requesting supplemental content via a network based on the contextual information and the location; displaying supplemental information to a user; interacting with the supplemental information at least in part via an interactive headphone.

Claims

1. An audio headphone system comprising:

a headphone apparatus comprising two audio output components, respective ones of which comprise an audio driver and are each configured to couple to a portion of an ear of a user of the audio headphone system;

a network communication interface configured to communicate between the headphone apparatus and a portable electronic audio player that is separate from the two audio output components;

a touch input sensor coupled to the headphone apparatus; and

an input recognition circuit communicatively coupled to the touch input sensor, wherein the input recognition circuit is configured to;

receive a first association between a touch input and a first command to be executed on the portable electronic audio player,

wherein the first command instructs the portable electronic audio player to transmit a message to a server external to the portable electronic audio player and the audio headphone system, and

wherein the message that is transmitted to the server comprises information related to audio playing on the audio headphone system when the touch input is received;

after receiving the first association, receive a first instance of the touch input provided by the user to the touch input sensor;

determine that the first instance of the touch input matches the first association between the touch input and the first command to be executed on the portable electronic audio player;

responsive to the first instance of the touch input matching the first association, provide the first command to the portable electronic audio player for execution;

receive a second association between the touch input and a second command to be executed on the portable electronic audio player;

after receiving the second association, receive a second instance of the touch input provided by the user to the touch input sensor;

determine that the second instance of the touch input matches the second association between the touch input and the second command to be executed on the portable electronic audio player; and

responsive to the second instance of the touch input matching the second association, provide the second command to the portable electronic audio player for execution.

2. The audio headphone system, of claim 1, wherein the Input recognition circuit is part of the portable electronic audio player, and wherein the headphone apparatus is configured to transmit the touch input to the input recognition circuit via the network communication interface.

3. The audio headphone system of claim 2, wherein the input recognition circuit comprises an Application Programming Interface (API) executing on the portable electronic audio player.

4. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the input recognition circuit is part of the headphone apparatus, and wherein the headphone apparatus is configured to transmit the first command and the second command to the portable electronic audio player via the network communication interface.

5. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the headphone apparatus is a first headphone apparatus, and wherein the first command transmits an indication to a second headphone apparatus comprising information related to audio playing on the first headphone apparatus when the touch input is received.

6. The audio headphone system of claim 5, wherein the indication transmitted to the second headphone apparatus is configured to allow the second headphone apparatus to output the audio playing on the first headphone apparatus when the touch input is received.

7. The audio headphone system of claim 6, wherein the indication transmitted to the second headphone apparatus is free of audio content of the audio playing on the first headphone apparatus when the touch input is received.

8. The audio headphone system of claim 5, further comprising an audio recognition circuit, and wherein the indication transmitted to the second headphone apparatus is generated responsive to the audio recognition circuit determining an identity of audio content of the audio playing on the first headphone apparatus when, the touch input is received.

9. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the touch input sensor on one of the two audio output components comprises a plurality of touch sensitive pads.

10. The audio headphone system of claim 9, wherein at least one of the plurality of touch sensitive pads is a capacitive touch sensor.

11. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the input recognition circuit is further configured to;

receive a third association between the touch input and a third command to be executed on the portable electronic audio player,

wherein the headphone apparatus is a first headphone apparatus, and wherein the third command transmits an indication directly to a second headphone apparatus comprising Information related to audio playing on the first headphone apparatus when the touch Input is received.

12. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the audio headphone system further comprises a data repository, and wherein the first association is stored in the data repository.

13. The audio headphone system of claim 12, wherein the input recognition circuit is further configured to:

replace a saved copy of the first association within the data repository with a saved copy of the second association.

14. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the touch input sensor is separate from the portable electronic audio player and the headphone apparatus, and wherein the touch input sensor is configured to transmit the touch input to the input recognition circuit via the network communication interface.

15. The audio headphone system of claim 1, further comprising an audio input sensor, wherein the input recognition circuit is further communicatively coupled to the audio Input sensor and further configured to:

receive a fourth association between an audio input and a fourth command to be executed on the portable electronic audio player;

after receiving the fourth association, receive a first instance of the audio Input provided by the user to the audio input sensor;

determine that the first instance of the audio Input matches the fourth association between the audio input and the fourth command to be executed on the portable electronic audio player;

responsive to the first instance of the audio input matching the fourth association, provide the fourth command to the portable electronic audio player for execution;

receive a fifth association between the audio input and a fifth command to be executed on the portable electronic audio player;

after receiving the fifth association, receive a second instance of the audio input provided by the user to the audio input sensor;

determine that the second instance of the audio input matches the fifth association between the audio Input and the fifth command to be executed on the portable electronic audio player; and

responsive to the second instance of the audio input matching the fifth association,

provide the fifth command to the portable electronic audio player for execution.

16. The audio headphone system of claim 15, wherein the two audio output components are configured to play a customized audio stream comprising the audio input received from the user.

17. The audio headphone system of claim 16, wherein the audio headphone system is configured to transmit the customized audio stream from the headphone apparatus to the portable electronic audio player.

18. The audio headphone system of claim 17, wherein the audio headphone system is configured to transmit the customized audio stream to a server external to the portable electronic audio player and the headphone apparatus.

19. The audio headphone system of claim 1, further comprising a physiological input sensor configured to receive physiological input corresponding to a physiological state of the user from a physiological measurement device, and wherein the headphone apparatus is configured to cause the portable electronic audio player to replace a first music being played on the headphone apparatus with a second music responsive to the physiological input received at the physiological input sensor.

20. The audio headphone system of claim 19, wherein the physiological measurement:

device is separate from the headphone apparatus and configured to communicate the physiological input wirelessly to the physiological input sensor.

21. The audio h earphone system of claim 20, wherein the physiological measurement device is a heart rate monitor.

22. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the audio headphone system further comprises at least one camera attached to the headphone apparatus.

23. The audio headphone system of claim 22, wherein the at least one camera is operationally coupled to the touch input sensor.

24. The audio headphone system of claim 22, wherein the at least one camera comprises at least one video camera.

25. The audio headphone system of claim 24, wherein the at least one video camera is operationally coupled to the touch input sensor.

26. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the audio headphone system further comprises at least one antenna attached to the headphone apparatus.

27. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the audio headphone system further comprises at least one microphone attached to the headphone apparatus.

28. The audio headphone system of claim 27, wherein the at least one microphone is operatively coupled to the touch input sensor.

29. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the audio headphone system further comprises at least one force-feedback device.

30. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the audio headphone system further comprises at least one near field communication device.

31. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the audio headphone system further comprises at least one radio frequency identifier.

32. The audio headphone system of claim 1, wherein the audio headphone system further comprises a cellular and/or GPS transceiver.